Steven Rales has agreed to buy a 15 percent stake in the Indiana Pacers at a valuation of $3.47 billion. 

Rales had already owned five percent of the Pacers, which brings his total stake in the franchise to 20 percent.

The deal includes a possible path to control for Rales should the Simon family ever choose to sell, according to two of the people. That could be the standard “right of first refusal” if the owners ever want to sell, or a “right of first offer,” which gives the buyer an exclusive window to secure a deal before a wider sale process is launched.

The Simon family purchased the Pacers in 1983 for $11 million. 

Rales and his brother are co-founders of Danaher, which has grown via acquisition into a wide-ranging science and technology manufacturing firm. 

Mark Cuban has agreed to sell a majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks to Mirian Adelson for a valuation in the range of $3.5 billion, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic. The initial reporting on the Adelson family's purchase was by Marc Stein.

Cuban will retain shares in the Mavericks and also full control of basketball operations while also remaining governor. Cuban purchased the Mavericks in 2000 for $285 million.

The Adelson family is selling almost $2 billion in stock in the Las Vegas Sands Corp., "to fund the purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise pursuant to a binding purchase agreement, subject to customary league approvals," according to an SEC filing.

The Sands group, led by Adelson and her son-in-law and company president, Patrick Dumont, has previously had discussions with Cuban about building a casino entertainment district in Dallas that would include a new arena for the Mavericks. 

Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez are working on a deal with the Carlyle Group to bring the U.S.-based private equity company in as a minority investor in the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Lore and Rodriguez agreed to buy the Wolves in 2021 via a tranched-out purchase at a $1.5 billion valuation. This included an initial 20 percent stake, which has now grown to 40 percent. The next option is to add another 40 stake by next March.

Carlyle's tentative investment would come at around a $2.3 billion valuation.

The remaining 20 percent stake will continue to be held by Glen Taylor, but Rodriguez and Lore have a future option on that piece as well.

Andre Iguodala is expected to be named the new executive director of the National Basketball Players Association to replace Tamika Tremaglio. 

Tremaglio is stepping down from the position after she started the position in January 2022. Tremaglio helped negotiate the current collective bargaining agreement earlier in 2023.

Iguodala announced his retirement from the NBA last month.

Diamond Sports has reached a one-year deal with the NBA that will essentially guarantee that the Bally Sports RSNs will continue to carry games through the end of the 23-24 season.

Diamond is attempting to navigate its was through bankruptcy. 

In a statement emailed to SBJ, a Diamond Sports spokesperson said: “Our newly-signed agreements with the NBA, Comcast and our creditors reflect significant progress on Diamond’s path forward. Upon Court approval, these agreements will enable Diamond to continue delivering live game broadcasts to fans throughout the 2023-24 NBA, NHL and MLB seasons. Diamond has been broadcasting NBA and NHL games and will continue to do so while the Court considers our motions, and while discussions with the NHL finalize with respect to their own new deal.”

After the season, the deal allows the NBA to reclaims the rights to the 13 teams that have deals with Bally Sports.

Over the past four seasons, there have been an average of eight trades that included three or more teams, which is nearly double the amount over the previous decade. From 2009 until 2019, there were an average of 4.5 multi-team trades per season.

Since the current league calendar started on July 1st, 2023, there have been five such deals including future Hall of Famers Damian Lillard and James Harden.

Because of the NBA's more restrictive new collective bargaining agreement, cap strategists are preparing for even more three- and four-team trades.

“There’s an understanding that if you want to get business done,” one general manager told Yahoo Sports, “sometimes there’s another team that can get business done.”

Teams are more creative in this era and there is also a far more conversational environment from front office to front office.

“It seems like there’s more strategic thinking and planning in the NBA than there was 15 years ago,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “People are offering solutions.”

There are more open secrets than truly classified intel amongst teams.

“Three-team trades will absolutely be more common under the new CBA,” said another team strategist.